Events, Classes, and Seminars

In this workshop we will read poets like Claire Wahmanholm, Tommy Pico, Emma Bolden, Sarah Marcus, and Richard Siken among others, and write our own poems against decay and toward joy. This is a generative workshop.

In this workshop we will read braided essays by contemporaries such as Terese Marie Mailhot, Kyo Maclear, Rebecca Solnit and Melissa Matthewson who show that the landscapes we traverse are the exact right starting point to explore our own stories and when we braid our important places with our own experience, the result can be an extraordinary juxtaposition, leaving behind an unimaginable deer trail for others to follow. We will spend time discussing the writing of others, exploring our own personal landscapes, and working toward a complete braided personal essay by the end.

This course for dedicated writers is designed to guide you through the writing and/or revising of your novel. It runs from September through May.

This six-month class is designed for memoirists in the early to mid stages of their memoir writing journey looking for consistent, in-depth feedback on their work. We will study four different memoirs in this class, along with several excerpts and essays.

This course for dedicated writers is designed to guide you through the writing and/or revising of your novel. It runs from September through May.

This course is a guide to the spirit and ethos of Oulipo and their collaborative experimental writing approach, designed to free the mind through constraint.
Each session will offer generative prompts and experimental forms for writers to respond to. No prior knowledge or skills required other than a sense of curiosity and a desire to test, try, and experiment with writing.

This course is for all levels of writers and readers. We will read and discuss excerpts from contemporary authors who write the self, or write from the basis of personal experience. There will be an opportunity to submit either one or two short excerpts of your writing (can be from a short story or novel-in-progress) to be workshopped during the class.

This eight-week class is focused on helping each writer push one story, essay, or poem through the drafting and revision stages and over the finish line. We’ll meet weekly to share accountability updates, read some work-in-progress with the group, set or revise goals for your weekly writing practice, and share successes and challenges with fellow writers. You’ll also learn strategies for keeping focused and staying on track. All genres welcome.

Throughout this eight week course, students will look at the many ways in which humans are connected to our natural surroundings, both urban and remote. Weather, soil, plants, wildlife, changing systems, and more will all be explored. By delving into the inherent close relationship humans have with the natural world, each student’s path to writing their own stories using the natural world as scaffolding will emerge.

In this class we’ll study and practice specific techniques used by established speculative fiction authors such as N.K. Jemisin and Nalo Hopkinson. We’ll examine examples of “worldbuilding in small doses” and try our hands at it. We’ll discuss the merits of creating worlds from the inside out versus going from the outside in. We’ll cover viewpoint, voice, neologisms, “found” texts, and other elements of this aspect of writing with exploratory and generative exercises.

In this six-week class we will explore prompt and nurture creative ideas to create a dossier of possibilities for further development. Participants can expect to take home 5-10 new ideas for creative works-in-progress and strategies for infusing more joy and authenticity in their writing practice.